4-24 SS Wolf Trap

 The Idaho Statesman  did an article  and showed a photograph of Trapper Josh Bransford who was legal, but took a picture of himself smiling and squatting in front of a living wolf in a leg-hold trap surrounded by bloody snow. The flap it has generated in recent weeks has brought new national attention to Idaho’s management of wolves.  I called Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Greg Losinski and asked for his take. “ Trapping is a method of management that is used by many agencies across the nation and the world and it can be done either through the agency personnel or through the use of licensed trappers and in this instance the trapper involved had gone through all of the proper training procedures and permits as far as we are aware but the image that is involved is generating lots of controversy. This is primarily because of the animal that is involved and the blood on the snow. While everybody today realizes that there is no problem with a trophy picture, we do need to be aware that a lot of folks do not like an image that has blood in it or other things that they may find distasteful. A lot of the professional organizations like Safari club and other groups really do encourage their members to take images that will portray the trophy that they have taken but be taken in a manner that will not be offensive to folks who don’t enjoy that method of recreation. It’s kind of like everybody eats sausage that nobody wants to go to the sausage plant.